The NJSLA recently (March 16) held a working dinner meeting to come up with programming ideas. The meeting was held at the home of Ruth Wolfish, former NJ Chapter President and currently the SLA Chapter Cabinet-Chair Elect. Thanks to Ruth for hosting us, arranging for the food and drinks, and coming up with a fun format with special prizes from her employer, IEEE.
The most popular topics from the 10 participants were:
- Legal ethics for special librarians.
- "Catalog Around," with members doing volunteer cataloging work for a nonprofit organization such as a historical society or synagogue/church (but not limited to those types of groups). The person proposing the idea cataloged materials for the New York-New Jersey Trail Conference using LibraryThing, over an extended period of time. You can see her work online.
- Members sharing career success stories.
- Book club.
- Survey of e-resources, with vendors invited to a "try it before you buy it" event.
- Events on Web 2.0 technologies such as Twitter, and on e-books and e-readers such as the Amazon Kindle. Check out the SLA's Innovation Laboratory and Innovation Wiki for more tips and tricks. (Note: You'll need to sign up for the wiki in this case.)
Other ideas included:
- Organizing tours such as those at Revolutionary War/historic sites in Morristown or Princeton, the Big Onion Tour in New York City, and a tour of the Newark Public Library, where the NJSLA archives are kept.
- Participating in resume and career workshops offered by local libraries. NJSLA members can offer useful advice to the many people who have lost their jobs in this very tough economy.
Please contact me, and I'll put you in touch with the person who proposed any specific idea you'd like to work on.